For those who are celebrating Christmas or other holidays at this time, the whole team at the Association for International Broadcasting wishes you Season's Greetings, and we would like to extend our best wishes for 2019.

2018 has been a busy and exciting year for the AIB, with us undertaking a range of initiatives and events to support our members in addition to our usual work. These include:

To find out more about the benefits that Membership of the Association for International Broadcasting delivers, see our Guide to Membership booklet and talk to Tom Wragg at AIB headquarters in the UK.

The AIBs

On 7 November, the 14th annual AIBs were presented at the traditional gala dinner in London. This high-profile event drew attendees from all over the world, with prizes being won by broadcasters and production companies from Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America.

Winners included GMA Network; ABS-CBN; BBC World Service; Channel 4, UK; BBC News; Al Jazeera; Plan A Productions; The Financial Times; CNN; On Our Radar; Three Arrows Media; BBC Radio 4; ITN Productions; BBC Sport and TBI Media. High commendations went to RTE Radio 1; BlokMedia; TRT WORLD; RFE/RL; GMA Network; Channel 4; BBC Arabic; True Vision; NPR; CNN en Espa ñ ol; Loftus Media and Blue Chalk Media .

CNN International was named International Channel of the Year and CNN journalist Salma Abdelaziz won the inaugural Breakthrough Talent Award.

See the Winners and Finalists book here .

Our signature “in conversation” looked at the way the London Marathon has become a major television institution, broadcast in more than 190 territories. Watch the conversation here:

https://vimeo.com/300539926/f67f66cab2

You can watch the two parts of the AIBs on the awards website at theaibs.tv . For a briefer overview, see the highlights here.

2018 has once again been a record-breaking year for the AIBs , with the greatest number of entries from the largest number of producers across the world. We are grateful to our Event Partner,  Al Jazeera Media Network , for its generous support of the AIBs , and we also thank the 2018 sponsors,  Signiant , Celebro Media , and  Radio Taiwan International . The support of all these organisations allow the Association to continue to grow the awards.

We will be launching the 2019 awards – our 15th – in April and already we have people asking for advance information on the categories, on judging and on sponsoring the awards. If you would like to explore ideas for being involved, please contact Clare Dance at AIB headquarters.

Brexit and Channel Licensing

Everyone thought that the publication of the UK-EU Brexit Political Declaration was going to mean some level of certainty about the future of UK-EU relations – including the broadcasting sector. As events in the British Parliament on 10 December, and the vote of no confidence on 12 December, demonstrated, there’s still a long way to go to achieve any degree of consensus, let alone providing media companies confidence in how to plan for life after 29 March 2019.

The Association for International Broadcasting  has been working on the possible effects on cross-border broadcasting of the UK leaving the EU – we’ve been helping our Members in discussions with regulators across the EU and offering impartial advice as well as keeping them up-to-date with the way political developments could impact their businesses. This work will continue as the political saga unfolds and we’ll be issuing further briefing notes  to Members, as well as attending and convening meetings for the benefit of AIB Members with key stakeholders in the channel licensing arena.

Talk to us about how the AIB helps Members on Brexit and other mission-critical issues - contact our Business Development Director Tom Wragg .

Media Freedom Initiative

On 8 November, the AIB convened a high-level meeting of Association Members and other interested parties to explore the concept of a collaborative media freedom initiative among broadcasters. This initiative is being run by the AIB, supported by Al Jazeera Media Network with former Al Jazeera, ABC and Reuters journalist Peter Greste facilitating the discussion in the room, along with AIB CEO Simon Spanswick.

The half-day meeting discussed the ways in which collaboration between AIB Members and other broadcasters might be shaped and developed, and those attending confirmed that they would like to progress the idea. Some of the non-member organisations present observed that the AIB has considerable convening power and that it is in a position to use its position as a highly-regarded neutral organisation to push this concept forward.

A summary of the meeting has been published (which is available on request). The concept and an outline plan will now be discussed by the AIB Executive Committee at its forthcoming board meeting in early January.

TRT World launches new studio in Washington DC

International news network  TRT World  has unveiled its new studios in Washington, D.C. The network will be broadcasting live news coverage and current affairs programmes from the heart of the US capital.

“The Washington Broadcast Centre is the first in a series of upgrades that TRT World is undertaking for all of its international locations,” said Ibrahim Eren , Director General and Chairman of TRT. “We have always had a broadcast centre in Washington, but the new facility is bigger and technically more advanced. It has simplified the processes for correspondents and editors. We can proudly say that our new facility is now equipped to handle news as a regional hub.”

More on this here .

Al Jazeera and Xinhua to increase co-operation

Cai Mingzhao , president of China's Xinhua News Agency , has met with Acting Director General of Al Jazeera Media Network Mostefa Souag , to discuss cooperation.

"Xinhua highly values its cooperation with AlJazeera, and the two media outlets have much to learn from each other," Cai said. "The agreement of strategic cooperation signed between the two sides in 2016 put in place basic principles on personnel exchanges and news co-operation in text, video, photo and other areas."

Cai expressed his hope that the two sides enhance communication and coordination on the basis of the above-mentioned agreement, and expand cooperation in think tanks, new media and other areas.

Souag said that Al-Jazeera was looking forward to enhancing exchanges with Xinhua in these areas.

In conversation - with Levira

The AIB has been finding out about Estonia-based transmission-to-playout company Levira in conversation with Indrek Lepp , Director of the company's Media Services division.

Watch the interview via The Channel page of the AIB website.

New appointments have been made at Syrian TV . Soumer Wassouf  has been appointed as head of the state-run General Organisation of Radio and TV (ORTAS), replacing Nayef al-Ubaydat. Maysoon Yousef  has been named director of Syria TV,   Tamim Duwaihi  director of the Drama channel, and Udai al-Hamoud  director of TV production.

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What the AIB is doing

The Association for International Broadcasting is constantly working for and with its global Members. With areas of activity that range from cyber security to issues around channel licensing post-Brexit, the AIB's work programme is extensive and constantly evolving.

We're bringing AIB Members together to share knowledge among them, as well as helping to set up new collaborations .

Not yet an AIB Member? Read our Guide to Membership and then talk to us about how to become part of the expanding global membership of the Association.